Calls for Army college inquiry after reports of rape and abuse

The women, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, all attended AFC over the last five years.

One woman, Tilly, told the BBC she was 17 when she was raped at AFC by several fellow soldiers who invited her into their room.

“They started taking my clothes off and then this led to them doing stuff I didn’t consent to.

“And then I was raped… by multiple junior soldiers, same age as me. It went on for hours. I felt like a piece of meat.”

Another woman’s story was shared with the BBC by her mother, who said her daughter Amy was sexually assaulted and subjected to almost daily sexual harassment during her training.

Because the lock to Amy’s room was not working, her mother said “she found herself sleeping across the door to stop male soldiers coming in”.

Another woman, who said she was sexually assaulted and harassed at AFC, described how misogynistic attitudes and behaviour of AFC staff rubbed off on some of the male teenagers.

She recalled one of the instructors saying: “It’s all about the pussy and how much of it you can get.”

The Army told the BBC a visit to AFC by the Children’s Commissioner and safeguarding authorities in January 2026 had recognised “the culture of care and the confidence junior soldiers have in raising concerns”.

It added that the college’s “robust discipline system” has been graded “outstanding” by the schools’ inspectorate, Ofsted, which visits the college every three years.

Ashleigh Percival-Borley, a veteran who served for 13 years in the British Army as a sergeant and multi-disciplinary instructor, said “incidents like this have “really taken my confidence out of the institution and that makes me really sad”.

She told Radio 4’s Today programme there was a “level of frustration” from women who wanted to serve in the army.

She said hearing the allegations “sickened” her as a female veteran as well as a former instructor who knew “the embodiment of the army’s values and standards” needed for the role.